No New Money for Obamacare, No Bailouts for Insurance Companies

More highlights from the new funding bill.

No New Money for Obamacare, No Bailouts for Insurance Companies

May 1, 2017

Despite a heavy push from Democrats, the government funding bill does not provide new funding for Obamacare as we work to repeal and replace the law altogether. It also includes a number of oversight provisions to protect taxpayer dollars:

It prevents a taxpayer-funded bailout of insurance companies through Obamacare's risk corridor program. In the last fiscal year, this provision saved $2.5 billion that would have been doled out to insurance companies without approval by Congress.

It eliminates funding for the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel of unelected bureaucrats that would take control away from patients and ration care for seniors.

It prevents the Prevention and Public Health Fund from being used as an Obamacare slush fund. Under the Obama administration, there was bipartisan concern with how unelected bureaucrats were using the program to fund pet projects--literally. An Energy and Commerce Committee investigation found that the slush fund was used for such 'high-priority projects' as massage therapy, urban gardening, and pet neutering.

It restricts taxpayers funds from being used to lobby for Obamacare.